cheap and fast if you can get it Unlooped or some shit. but the throttle gaming on the lower packages and torrents are throttled too, no matter if it's legal or illegal. which is fucked up. though i've managed to break that by changing the ports, but i forget how i did it.

they basically passed me to four different people who all told me to turn it off and on again, before someone finally realised what the actual problem was (they'd sent me the wrong router), i have had very little problems with Virgin compared to any other service provider i've used (and you don't need a phone line). o2 were OK in the past but i did have to call them every couple of weeks to get them to remotely reset our router (after going through the initial "no i'm not turning it off and on again cos i know that won't fix it in this case" routine).

their cabled internet. I have heard though that if you live in certain areas, often those with a lot of shared housing or student type areas, their exchanges just can't cope. Cue loads of slowness and packet loss, but they refuse to accept a problem. Exacerbated by everyone in the area all trying to watch films online at the same time, mainly.

As for ADSL, they are all essentially the same. They go through the same lines, the difference is which monkey you get on the end of the line.